How do I make in-game events? Case study on working with events on the example of Gold & Goblins

Elena Bugakova and Elizaveta Khilkovskaya, producers of AppQuantum, told about the pitfalls of holding events in mobile games in their column.

Elena Bugakova and Elizaveta Khilkovskaya, producers of AppQuantum

The human brain often adds additional value to things and events that are somehow limited: in time, in quantity, in availability. This approach is also successfully used in free-play games.

Let’s look at how this works in in-game events, and as an example, take the game Gold and Goblins, published by AppQuantum.

To begin with, let’s turn to statistics. In 2016, only 50% of mobile games from the box office top (and 25% of all other mobile phones) used in-game events, and in 2021 there were already 94% of such games in the American top 100 (GameRefinery data).

In other words, almost all top games use events to attract and retain users, as well as to boost monetization.

What are in-game events like?

• Repetitive and unique. For example, the New Year is a recurring event, but many players see it no more than once in connection with the user’s life cycle (depending on the genre). And there are events that are triggered every three days or a couple of weeks — they can already be considered recurring for most users.
• With different length of time (from a few hours to a couple of weeks).
• With a completely new economic cycle or integrated into an existing model (this is how well-known combat passes work).
• Using the current gameplay or adding a completely new one.
• Single, competitive (like leaderboards) and cooperative (for example, all together to kill some boss).

What mistakes happen when using events?

Previously, we considered it important that in-game events were unique and never repeated.

However, as practice has shown, for most players it does not matter whether the events are one of a kind. Moreover, for developers, this approach turned out to be quite difficult and expensive to produce, and they could not increase the production of content because of this.

Yes, we received an influx of people during the event, and then there was no rollback after its end (any action is assessed by the impact on income). At the same time, the production was still too expensive, and the information content was insufficient.

So you can safely make the events repetitive. Especially if the user lifecycle inside your project allows it.

In addition, the duration of the event was too long and did not always correspond to the content.

It is important to understand that if you set a one-week deadline for some “trifling event”, then, most likely, the user will think that he will have time to close it in the last two days. As a result, the player loses focus and simply forgets about it.

Of course, you can work with long events, but for this you need to prepare it comprehensively.

Also speaking about mistakes: earlier in the framework of events, we added one or two new mechanics that were built “on top” of the game itself. It turned out that this approach works on average in idlers, because there is not much gameplay in this genre (as in typhoons). Yes, we added a little bit of new, but it did not give any tangible increase.

During a series of experiments on Gold and Goblins, the developers themselves suggested that we try to approach the work on events differently.

After changing the approach, we saw a significant increase in ARPDU (4 times) during the events.

At the same time, they were repetitive, which allowed us to significantly increase the LTV of the project over time (by a third).

What has changed?

• New in-game events became tied to the calendar week, and not to some holidays, plus they began to repeat every week.
• We continued to hold seasonal events. In 2022, we plan to host seasonal events every quarter: Easter (already implemented), Summer, Halloween and Christmas.
• Weekly events began to last from three days (at the beginning of the week — from Sunday to Tuesday) to five (in the middle of the week — from Tuesday to Saturday).
• It was not even necessary to link the events to the player’s timing. With the Easter Update, we have introduced three time zones (America, Europe, Asia) for the convenience of players.
• A button with an updated event status has been added to the main game stage, which shows that the event is active, as well as how long it will last. It also makes it always easy to go to the event.
• Added push notifications to remind users that they should come in and play.

Why was this option suitable?

In Gold and Goblins, these events began to be created as a parallel gameplay cycle using the mechanics that are already in the game. That is, we gave inside the idler to play another idler, which additionally attracted a time limit. Players who already like this gameplay were glad that there was more of it.

Short events for a couple of days have become not very “expensive” for the player. In our case, up to $40 or 150 ad views are spent on completing each. Plus, it also became possible to complete it without any waste of money in principle.

Due to the high availability, events began to attract a significant number of players from our database – about 80% of active users.

The progress in the event is linear, and at that time we left the exponential growth for the introduction of leaderboards.

A little bit about additional features

Let’s briefly tell you about what additional features can be introduced on top of the “necessary minimum” of content:

• leaderboards (separate for events, also with a limited validity period and disappearing after the end);
• combat passes;
• social and clan mechanics.

In Gold and Goblins, with the introduction of leaderboards, the share of competitive players has increased, which is why IAP ARPPU has grown. They began to buy event bundles more often in order to break into the leaders within their group, which we paid attention to when creating a long event for 11 days. Having divided it into separate mines (unlike one long mine in short ones), we dedicated the last one to fans to fight for the championship, so that you can finish the event already at the fifth mine, collecting all the awards, and in the sixth mine to take part in a pure competition.

And what about the awards?

Rewards are the most important point in the development of an event that can greatly change the behavior of players. It is important to pay sufficient attention to the work on awards, while they do not necessarily have to be unique. It is important that they motivate the player to participate in the event again.

In Gold and Goblins, two events are launched at the beginning of the week and four in the middle. The ones at the beginning are slightly shorter, and as a reward — sets of either evolve- or hard-currencies (it depends on what event is on the schedule). Thus, players already know that they will be able to significantly replenish the reserves of a particular resource from Sunday to Tuesday.

The events taking place in the middle of the week represent a more diverse pool of awards, but also last longer: from Tuesday to Saturday. They include rarer chests and cards for improving managers.

How does monetization work inside such events?

It is based on bundles (a similar approach to event monetization is found not only in idlers, but also in role-playing games, puzzles, farms and other mobile genres).

Our bundles are tied to a decrease in the rate of progress. There are 5-6 of them in total for large events and a little less for events that last two days. Their cost, as a rule, is such as not to scare away players — from $ 3 to $ 15. It grows as the player moves forward. The user knows that progress between events is not carried over. This means that he will be willing to pay a little more with each new pass in order to have time to go through all the content and get all the rewards.

Such monetization attracts even those players who are usually used to the fact that the game is completely free. Thanks to the additional incentive in the form of a limited duration.

And how does advertising monetization work in events?

A good solution is to leave only top advertising placements in the events, and not drag everything there in a row. This measure will allow you to “protect” your eCPM and avoid cannibalization of other ads in the main game.

For example, in Gold and Goblins, we repeated only two placements from the main game, but the most popular ones. This solution turned out to be competent, as it did not entail the creation of too many RVs within a time-limited event.

It is important to take into account the scale of events: their duration, balance of complexity, content – this may change not only the number of advertising placements, but also the frequency of their appearance. For example, it is worth giving the opportunity to view an advertising placement that increases a player’s offline income only 3-5 times a day.

***

So, how to make good, earning events for your game?

• Make them repetitive and link them not only to some holidays, but also to calendar weeks. For example, they can be repeated every week or two.
• When choosing the frequency of events, rely on the length of the player’s life cycle of your particular project.
• When choosing the duration of the event, start from the available amount of content. It is better not to make weekly events too long (longer than 2-3 days), there is no point in this, because the player will lose focus.
• Events should be “accessible” to players both in gameplay and in terms of transition to it (if you have the opportunity to make a button that will “throw” the user directly into the event at any time, then this is an excellent solution).
• Don’t make their gameplay too complex.
• When setting prices for bundles for events, do not overdo it. For short events — set small prices (from $3 to $15) with an increase as the player progresses.
• Offer rewards that interest users. They don’t have to be unique, but they should give the player additional motivation to take part in the event.